Got my license a few years back… never saw a worse gatekept hobby. Tried a few clubs, wanted to find an Elmer, and besides the political advocation pervasiveness, the general distaste to help anyone younger (and I’m pushing 50!) was beyond the pale. I have a radio I bought that sits on a shelf unused. Pretty much decided I couldn’t be bothered to figure out why I’d even want to talk to these people tbh.

Since this was a life goal of mine, I even went so far to reach out to ARRL at a local event and express some frustration with the difficulty to get into the hobby. They acknowledged the difficulty; I don’t envy their uphill battle.

Did have a dude at a local ham meeting sit down next to me and promptly ask if I could drive him to his doctors appt the following week though.

I’ll stick with pinball thank you. Even the vintage audio guys are more pleasant.